Rules of Competition and HDCP

@

* Golf for visually impaired people
* VIG's activity
* Rule of competition
* News Letter
* Invitation for members

photo

Back to the top page.

# Statues of Visually Impaired Golfers of Japan (revised on 8/May/1999)

Article I. Denomination.
The name of the entity shall be the "Visually Impaired Golfers of Japan", a title which may be accompanied by the expression "VIG. Japan".

Article II. Purpose.
This entity is established by visually impaired people for visually impaired people. The objectives are to provide an opportunity for exchanging information between visually impaired people, improve golf skill, and achieve better social life.

Article III. Domicile
The registered office of this entity shall be at the places in Tokyo listed in the separated table.

Article IV. Territorial Scope
 The goals determining the activities shall be as follows:

  1. To promote golf for visually impaired people.
  2. To plan, coordinate and organize competitions and training events.
  3. To publish bulletin and member list.
  4. To facilitate international communication via golf.
  5. To take actions to achieve the objectives.

Article V. Members.
There are two categories of the members:

  1. Full Members : Individuals and organizations that agree with the objectives of this entity, support the activities, and fulfill the following conditions:
    1. Visually impaired people who love golf or sighted people who are interested in supporting the visually impaired golfers.
    2. Visually impaired people are required to retain the handicapped people certification.
    3. Visually impaired people are required to buy a sports safety insurance.
  2. Supporting Members : Individuals and organizations that agree with the objectives of this entity and support the activities.

Article VI. Membership Application Requirements
Applicants have to obtain the approval from the board of directors with the recommendation from one or more full members.

Article VII. Membership Application Procedure.
Membership application procedure is as follows:

  1. Full Members of visually impaired people : Application for membership shall be addressed to VIG office with annual fee that is determined in the separated table, a copy of handicapped people certification, and prescribed application form.
  2. Full Members of sighted people : Application for membership shall be addressed to VIG office with annual fee that is determined in the separated table and prescribed application form.
  3. Supporting Members : Application shall be addressed to VIG office with one or more supporting fees determined in the separated table.

Article VIII. Privilege of the Members.
Each member has privilege to participate in the evens held by this entity and receive bulletins and other publications.

Article IX. Rights of the Members.
Each member has rights to attend the general assembly and cast a vote.

Article X. Loss of Membership Status.
Members will lose their membership by expulsion or withdrawal.

Article XI. Withdrawal of the Membership.

  1. Member who withdraws from the entity is required to send a letter with reasons of withdrawal to VIG office.
  2. Member will be regarded to withdraw from the entity when he/she does not pay for annual fee for two years.

Article XII. Expulsion
 Expulsion of a member will be issued by the president with the decision of the general assembly when the member damages honour, confidence, and discipline of the entity and behaves against its objectives.

Article XIII. Officers
 The entity has the following officers:

  1. President, Vice-president, Director
  2. Manager

Article XIV. Election of Officers.

  1. Directors and managers are elected at the general assembly. The president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer are elected by mutual vote in the executive committee.
  2. Officers can be elected for more than two posts.
  3. More than half of the officers must be visually impaired members.

Article XV. Term of Officers.
Term of each officer is two years. The ex-officer can be continuously reelected.

Article XVI. Resignation of Officers.
Officers can resign when they lose the membership.

Article XVII. Dismissal of Officers.
When officers are unable to work for the entity due to the physical or mental problems, or behave inappropriately as an officer, they shall be dismissed by the vote in general assembly.

Article XVIII. Assembly.
 Official meetings of the entity are the general assembly and board of officers. The general assembly may be convened in ordinary or extraordinary session.

Article XIX. Constitution of Assembly.

  1. General Assembly is constituted by the officers and members.
  2. Board of officers is constituted by the officers. Executive committee shall be held by the president, vice-president, and directors.

Article XX. Functions of Assembly.

  1. The general assembly is convened to issue decisions written in this statues and on :
    1. Plan of activities and their budget.
    2. Report of activities and statement of accounts.
    3. Revision of statues and rules.
    4. Other important issues for management of the entity.
  2. Board of officers is convened to issue decisions written in this statues and on :
    1. Operation of the issues decided in the general assembly.
    2. Issues to refer to the general assembly.
    3. Issues to operate the entity that does not require the vote in the general assembly.
  3. Executive committee is convened to discuss the important issues on the operation of the entity with the delegation from the board of officers.

Article XXI. Operation of Assembly.

  1. The general assembly shall be convened once per year.
  2. The president can convene an extraordinary general assembly of necessity, and must convene an extraordinary general assembly immediately when the board of officers requests.
  3. The board of officers and executive committee shall be convened when the president requests.

Article XXII. Convening an Assembly.
 The general assembly, board of officers, and executive committee are convened by the president.

Article XXIII. Chairperson

  1. The chairperson of the general assembly shall be elected from the member attendance of the general assembly.
  2. The board of officers and executive committee shall be chaired by the president or the person designated by the president.

Article XXIV. Attendance quorum.

  1. The general assembly shall be deemed validly constituted with at least half of the member attendance (include the delegation), and the decision shall be made by the approval of the half of the member attendance.
  2. The board of officers and executive committee shall be deemed validly constituted when at least half of the all officers (include the delegation), and the decision shall be made by the approval of the half of the all officers.

Article XXV. Expenditure.
 The expenditure shall be filled by annual fee, donation, and other income.

Article XXVI. Financial Year.
The financial year shall be from the 1st of April to the 31st of March.

Additional Rules

  1. This statues shall be valid on 23rd of December, 1994.
  2. Revised on 17th of May,1998.
  3. Revised on 8th of May,1999.

* Separated Table of Statues.

  1. Annual Fee
    : 3,000 Yen(common)
    : 2,000 Yen(family)
    : 1,500 Yen(student)
  2. Supporting Member Fee :
    (Individual) One year : 3,000 Yen
    (Organization) One Year : 10,000 Yen
  3. VIG office shall be at 3-25-3 Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo.

## VIG Rules for Competition (07/06/1997 : Revised)

1. Qualification
Players are categorized into three classes, B1, B2, and B3, based on the classification of visually impaired people by IAAF (International Amateur Athletic Federation) and IBSA (International Blind Sports Federation). Players are not required to submit medical certification and declare their class by themselves with good understandings of the classification and the faith in the principle of fairness.

Classification of Visually Impaired by IAAF and IBSA.

B 1:
No light perception at all in either eye up to light perception but inability to recognize the shape of a hand at any distance or in any direction.
B 2:
From ability to recognize the shape of a hand up to a visual acuity of 2/60 and/or a visual field of less than 5 degrees.
B 3:
From visual acuity above 2/60 up to a visual acuity of 6/60 and/or a visual field of more than 5 degrees and less than 20 degrees.

* All classifications in best eye with best correction.
All the players have to wear spectacles or contact lenses on the examination regardless of whether the players use them in the game.

* Appendix

  1. The people who are at the fifth grade in handicapped people certification are categorized into the B3 class.
  2. Players are allowed to wear spectacles or contact lenses in the games but prohibited from using the optical instruments for vision enhancement such as glasses for weak sight, a monocular, and binoculars

* Notes:
VIG took the classification based on the grading in the handicapped people certification before. However, the grade was for licensed doctors to judge the qualification for acquisition of welfare service from public organization, and it does not examine the visual functions for sports.

Therefore, VIG changed the regulations to take the classification by IAAF and IBSA.

Although VIG also discussed the classification based on the medical certification, VIG decided not to take the system since the requirement of the medical document will give visually impaired people the physical and financial problems and it is not easy to find oculists who can assess the visual functions with the good understandings of the meaning of remaining sight in the games by the visually impaired athletes.

VIG hope that every player declares their category based on the spirit of fair play, "not advantageous to themselves."

2. Rules for Competition.
 All competitions shall be processed based on the JGA official rules with the following exceptions :

  1. No penalty for touching the ground with the sole of a club in a bunker.
  2. No penalty when a player's ball touches himself or his equipments.

3. Competition System.
All games shall be processed as eighteen-hole-stroke play. However, other system may be taken if necessary.

3.1 In order to have a smooth game, the following rules are applied :

  1. Players can make one practice swing per shot.
  2. When total number of shots in a hole exceeds three times of par, the player has to stop playing the hole and is considered to shot three times of the par hole and two.

4. Maximum Limitation of Handicap in Each Class.
All VIG members are expected to improve their skill for playing golf with sighted players. For motivating members, VIG put a maximum limitation on the handicap system as a target score.

* Maximum Limitation of VIG Handicap.

B1 Class : 72
B2 Class : 54
B3 Class : 40

5. Calculation of Handicap.
All players are requested to submit a handicap application form appointed by VIG handicap committee. The VIG handicap committee shall calculate their handicap based on the calculation procedure defined by the committee.
Note: The members who have never played eighteen holes with the better score than the maximum handicap defined by VIG do not need to submit the handicap application form and will receive the maximum handicap automatically.

6. Classification by Handicap
B1B2B3
Class A0 - 530 - 390 - 17
Class B54 - 7140 - 5318 - 39
Class COver 72Over 54Over 40

(C) 1998,1999 Visually Impaired Golfers of Japan, Manabu **Springwater** Shimizu
Translation (C) 1998 Jiro Nemoto